Franklin senior athlete receives state honor
Published 9:49 am Wednesday, June 9, 2010
SUFFOLK—Virginia’s House of Delegates and Senate knew about it. Pete Twisdale’s parents knew about it.
The secret was kept from the Franklin teen until Tuesday morning when the First Baptist basketball and soccer standout was presented with a state joint resolution recognizing his athletic and academic accomplishments over the past three years at First Baptist Christian School.
House of Delegate member William Barlow presented the resolution in a plaque to Twisdale during an awards ceremony on the last day of school for First Baptist in the sanctuary of Westminster Reformed Presbyterian Church.
On Dec. 17, during Twisdale’s senior season, the 6-foot-4 Crusader wing player tallied his 1,000th career point. As the resolution noted, Twisdale’s was the first Crusader basketball player to reach the milestone in the program’s first three varsity seasons.
With the last couple months of his senior season added in, Twisdale completed his Crusader career with 1,222 points.
“I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t know why I had to be here,” Twisdale said about the state’s recognition.
First Baptist’s senior class was the school’s first graduating class.
Twisdale had to rush off a few minutes after the presentation to get to college courses he’s been taking during the last part of his senior year.
Among other accomplishments recognized by Barlow and the resolution were more basketball honors, such as Twisdale being the first Crusader to score more than 500 points in a single season and being named first-team all-conference each of the last three seasons, twice in the Eastern Virginia Athletic Conference and in the Seven Cities Athletic Conference in 2009-10.
During the fall and soccer season, Twisdale led the Crusaders there, too. In his three seasons, Twisdale totaled 50 goals.
Twisdale was also honored for carrying a 3.6 grade-point average and being a National Honor Society member and senior class chaplain. He’s interested in transferring to Christopher Newport and possibly walking on to the basketball or soccer team there.
“I guess when you do something people find out about it,” Twisdale said.